I want to drop cereal. But I love it and love the ease. Alternatives?

[Anonymous]

Family of 5: two parents, seven year old, six year old, and two year old. We are cereal junkies. Mostly just honey nut Cheerios and Cheerios, but I know how bad even those can be for us.

I love the ease…and everyone eats it.

However, it really doesn’t fill anybody up. They ask for a bowl after bowl, and cereal is getting expensive.

I would love realistic alternatives for this working mom. I am a teacher, so I’m hoping over the summer to break the cereal habit but I have a little bit more time, but still not enough to make waffles or anything like that.

[Anonymous]

I like to make egg mcmuffin breakfast sandwiches or tortilla rollups on the weekend. Freeze them and nuke in the mornings. I usually do egg/meat/spinach combo. Sometimes I add onion/tomatoes too.

[Anonymous]

Oatmeal. Plain, and add a little of your own sugar, cinnamon, dried fruit, frozen fruit etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Family of 5: two parents, seven year old, six year old, and two year old. We are cereal junkies. Mostly just honey nut Cheerios and Cheerios, but I know how bad even those can be for us.

I love the ease…and everyone eats it.

However, it really doesn’t fill anybody up. They ask for a bowl after bowl, and cereal is getting expensive.

I would love realistic alternatives for this working mom. I am a teacher, so I’m hoping over the summer to break the cereal habit but I have a little bit more time, but still not enough to make waffles or anything like that.

I have DD7, DS6, and DS3. We do cereal Saturday mornings, but the kids are definitely hungry an hour later! I work part time as a substitute teacher, and these are my favorite weekday, kid-approved breakfasts:

Cheese toast with fruit
Pancake and sausage on a stick with fruit
Jimmy Dean sausage, egg, and cheese croissants
Yogurt, toast, fruit
Instant oatmeal made with milk, and topped with cranberries, walnuts, cream
Frozen waffles, precooked sausage links, fruit
Hard boiled eggs, toast, fruit

[Anonymous]

I have never quit my cereal habit, but I do pick cereals that fill people up, like Frosted Mini-Wheats. Eating Cheerios is like eating air.

Cereal isn't a bad thing in and of itself. It's just about choosing ones that actually fill you up. For me, mini-wheats is more filling than steel-cut oatmeal, which is also something I eat.

[Anonymous]

We are not cereal eaters at all. Ever. 3 year old has 1-2 frozen waffles, 1 glasses of milk and a bowl of fruit. 7 year old has 2 fried eggs and a yogurt and fruit. Keeps them full a while.
I would switch slow and do a yogurt and granola day and then an egg day. Some really like baked oatmeal.

[Anonymous]

Oatmeal! So much better for you too. I get the instant oatmeal and microwave it with water for two minutes and it is ready to eat. Alternatively overnight oats is really easy. You can put fruit, chia seeds, nuts, chocolate chips, yogurt, and even a few pieces of cereal or granola in get crunch if that's what you want. (Meaning it can be as easy or as fancy as you want). Years ago I used to mix a banana, almond milk, and oatmeal, and let it sit overnight in the fridge. It was sweetened with the banana mixed in and didn't need extra sugar.

[Anonymous]

I like Grape-nuts. That's pretty filling.

[Anonymous]

Plain Cheerios isn’t bad for you but I understand that it’s not really filling. What about some of the high fiber cereals?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oatmeal! So much better for you too. I get the instant oatmeal and microwave it with water for two minutes and it is ready to eat. Alternatively overnight oats is really easy. You can put fruit, chia seeds, nuts, chocolate chips, yogurt, and even a few pieces of cereal or granola in get crunch if that's what you want. (Meaning it can be as easy or as fancy as you want). Years ago I used to mix a banana, almond milk, and oatmeal, and let it sit overnight in the fridge. It was sweetened with the banana mixed in and didn't need extra sugar.

I'm hungry an hour after I eat steel-cut oatmeal. When I eat instant, I'm starving 30 min later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plain Cheerios isn’t bad for you but I understand that it’s not really filling. What about some of the high fiber cereals?

Thank you, but we’re really trying to cut out cereal all together. I feel like we get “healthy” cereals and then we fall right back into the cheerio habit.

Also the “healthy” cereals are expensive, and our boys can crush a box at one meal!

[Anonymous]

We have eggs and oatmeal every morning. Can be made fresh pretty quick, or made ahead and reheated.
DD has cereal sort of as dessert after her real meal. Sometimes yogurt.

If I plan ahead and make steel cut oats, I like to have sunflower seeds and nuts in that. Otherwise I have eggs.

[Anonymous]

We are also trying to reduce cereal because of the price, plus just trying to eat fewer processed foods in general. Though cereal and commercial bread are really the only processed foods we eat so I don't stress that much about it. But yes, the cost! $6 a box is not sustainable for us.

Agree with others that some cereals are more filling than others. I don't even like Cheerios (DD loves the honey nut and DH is generally a fan), but I find Raising Bran, Life, and Grape Nuts all to be pretty filling. Though I will also note that these cereals also tend to be more expensive, probably because they are more dense and nutrient rich.

Alternatives: yogurt with granola, oatmeal, and muffins. I try to make a batch of muffins every Sunday night so that people can grab one for breakfast when they need to. I do bran muffins with chocolate chips, banana, carrot, zucchini, and "pancake muffins" that are literally made with pancake mix (homemade) and berries. My kids don't like the zucchini muffins but will eat everything else. DH often has an early morning commute and especially likes the muffins because he rarely has time to actually sit down and eat a proper breakfast on those days. Lots of ways to pack in fiber and protein to these.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plain Cheerios isn’t bad for you but I understand that it’s not really filling. What about some of the high fiber cereals?

Thank you, but we’re really trying to cut out cereal all together. I feel like we get “healthy” cereals and then we fall right back into the cheerio habit.

Also the “healthy” cereals are expensive, and our boys can crush a box at one meal!

This is why we buy our cereal at Costco. Need the mega-size boxes.

But otherwise, we make oatmeal, multi-grain hot cereal, yogurt and granola, bran muffins, grits, cornmeal pancakes, eggs, sausage, breakfast burritos, etc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are also trying to reduce cereal because of the price, plus just trying to eat fewer processed foods in general. Though cereal and commercial bread are really the only processed foods we eat so I don't stress that much about it. But yes, the cost! $6 a box is not sustainable for us.

Agree with others that some cereals are more filling than others. I don't even like Cheerios (DD loves the honey nut and DH is generally a fan), but I find Raising Bran, Life, and Grape Nuts all to be pretty filling. Though I will also note that these cereals also tend to be more expensive, probably because they are more dense and nutrient rich.

Alternatives: yogurt with granola, oatmeal, and muffins. I try to make a batch of muffins every Sunday night so that people can grab one for breakfast when they need to. I do bran muffins with chocolate chips, banana, carrot, zucchini, and "pancake muffins" that are literally made with pancake mix (homemade) and berries. My kids don't like the zucchini muffins but will eat everything else. DH often has an early morning commute and especially likes the muffins because he rarely has time to actually sit down and eat a proper breakfast on those days. Lots of ways to pack in fiber and protein to these.

Unless you are making oatmeal from scratch, every other breakfast will be more expensive than cereal.